Friday, June 8, 2007

Will to live

We need a will. We need to celebrate my husband's birthday. Hey, let's do both at once!

Sunday we will have a Happy Birthday/Please don't die (but if you do, can I have your kids?) party.

Sunday we will have over to our house:
The people who get our kids if we die.
The man who knows way too much about probate court.
The woman who is a notary.

I think it's a bit eerie that these are the people we always have over for the family birthday parties. It's also eerie that the guy who works in Probate is the guy who would be the executor of our will. It's almost TOO perfect that our good friends are people who know way too much about wills to begin with. If this was a Hollywood movie, it would be the perfect set up. A preparation for when we DIE in China.

My friends know this, but you might not know this. YEARS before we even decided to adopt, I had a horrible nightmare that we died in a plane crash on the way to China. Very very graphic dream. The next day we were walking in the park and I said to my husband, "Yeah, it was a bad dream, but it's not like we're ever going to CHINA or anything."

And here we are.

My friends in China believe in opposites in dreams. A plane crash means a safe journey. Or maybe they're blowin smoke just to make me relax. Or shut up. I tend to drone on and on about my freaky China plane crash dream from years ago. My friends are reading this and nodding.

Even with those fears, it still hacks me off when people hear of our plans to travel and they say, "Oh, you need a will for sure now!" I ask if they have one. "No, but we're not big travelers." It's like they think traveling is the only sure way to die? How about going to the store to get some milk? It happens. It happens in all situations.

When we got married, we got life insurance. Now that we're parents, we need a will. It's just what you (should) do.

I should know this more than anyone. I saw my mom struggle when my dad died. She had no clue where the bills were, what was paid, what was what, what he wanted, and how she'd pay the bills because he didn't have life insurance.

Making up a will and showing your friends what to do in case you die sounds pretty morbid. I'm going to turn it into a celebration. It's the responsible thing to do. I owe it to my children. I owe it to my friends who would be left to clean up the mess that is our house, bills, and finances, should we both exit the planet at once. It's bad enough that people would be in mourning, but add all the hassles on top and blehhhh.....

Another great thing that happened as a result of China. If it weren't for China, we'd still be dragging our feet on this.

We're getting a cake. I'm playing with some ideas right now. Black cake. Maybe skull and crossbones. "Hope you don't die, but if you do, RIP."

Yeah, I'm scared. I'm hardly ever without the kiddos. If we fly, they fly. Wherever we go, they go. Still, that's not a guarantee we'd all go at once.

Just know that if we DO die, we died doing something we believed in. Our children would be going to an amazing family. They would keep our memory alive. They would respect that the kids came from two oddball people and let our kids have their own personalities and respect those personalities. They'd stay in this city. They'd be with parents who are very similar to us in education, goals, discipline, and outlook on life.

But that's not going to happen. This baby needs us. Our children need us. We have a lot left to do on this earth.

Until then, Happy Birthday. We're responsible adults.

2 comments:

Sofie said...

Sounds very responsible. Now I'm a little worried about your flight. But since you have said it outloud you have un jinxed yourself. So you are good to go.

jen said...

well, if you die, please have Mr. Probate Guy update the blog to let us know, mkay? ;)